Terotrous wrote:Wow, the forum is actually looking pretty good right now. The only type of spam around is the kind that comes in a tin.

Do you think it's too early for the "Mission Accomplished" banner and photo-ops?

it only looks good because I've been nuking spam posts by the dozen a day

Just because the fighting isn't over doesn't mean we can't declare that we've won.

That's the exact definition of "haven't won". No banner, no embarrassment when ahaugen steps away for a day and we're suddenly overrun because Charlie's in the wire and trip flares are going off and the radios aren't working even though we're broadcasting out in the open for air support or artillery fire and the mortars are running low and OH NO WE'RE SURROUNDED ON ALL SIDES!!! FIX BAYONETS AND PULL BACK TO THE FDL!!

Sorry. I'm cool. I'm cool.

Avatar courtesy of Fading Aura.Heed these words: I do not draw. Photos if you're lucky.

As I said in the help forum, the ban system bans users completely from the forum, so it's possible to ban *everyone and anyone* by accident.

The way you ban a user is by clicking on the user's name in the post, click "administrate user" beside their name, then go to the bottom of the page, there are two parts:Basic Tools (from the drop down, select BAN by IP)then under Delete User (delete all posts)

That's 100 times faster than trying to delete every post individually. But you have to be absolutely sure the user is only a spammer, as it's a point of no return.

The workaround for this was for moderators to pitch the spam posts into the "trash" folder and let the forum auto delete them. This does nothing to ban them though.

I'll give McDuffies access to the ban and delete function and we'll see what happens.

Something a little more powerful you can do if you see the same spammer coming back is to ban their dynamic range (essentially every IP address their ISP can assign them). Click "Administrate User," then click "Who is" Under their IP. You'll see two numbers with a dash between them. Copy those.

Click "users and groups" at the top tab, then "Ban IPs" on the left side. Then paste that number in there. Be VERY sure you got it exactly right and that there are NO SPACES in it. Leaving in a space can break the board.

Click submit and you've now banned an entire group if IP addresses. Now this is a rather scorched earth approach, so I wouldn't do it with any spam coming out of North America or Western Europe. I mostly use this for Russian and Eastern European spammers, who are typically non-English speakers who's neighbors are very unlikely to be using my own boards.

Sadly this is going to get MUCH harder to do when IPv6 rolls out and IP addresses become more plentiful.